


Origins of Rivalry

by BullySquadess



Series: ML Enemies Au [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, first in a series, ml enemies au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-19 01:39:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11303088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BullySquadess/pseuds/BullySquadess
Summary: The tale of how Ladybug met her arch-nemesis. Part of the tumblr-conceived Enemies AU





	Origins of Rivalry

Ladybug could still recall the day she’d met Chat Noir with a 20/20 clarity that was absolutely uncanny. Perhaps miraculous even.

The incident had taken place a scant three weeks after she’d faced another particularly life-changing meeting- the fated day she’d came home to find a pair of earring in her bag and a _bug in her room_.

Though Marinette’s first instinct was to get rid of the creature somehow, she’d quickly learned that Tikki was anything but a pest. She was an enigma, a God. She was good fortune incarnate and somehow she’d managed to find her way to the one girl who was anything _but_ lucky.

That first week was utter turmoil, almost too for Marinette to take in at once. Finding out she was chosen for a task far beyond her mental grasp, discovering a wealth of magic and powers unlike anything that should have even existed in the real world… being warned of the opposition she’d have to face.

It was a lot.

It was overwhelming.

But Marinette wasn’t the quitting type.

She hadn’t quit after her first disastrous attempt at akuma fighting, when all of Paris was scared and confused and looking for some sort of scapegoat for their panic. She hadn’t quit the day news stations began flashing pictures of a spotted red figure next to the headline “friend or foe?”. She hadn’t quit when Alya and Nino had hugged her sobbing form tight, vowing to do everything in their power to help her be the best superhero she could be.

She hadn’t quit, and it was because of all those thing.

Marinette had become Ladybug _because_ of the akumas; _Because_ her city was faltering; And _because_ that’s who her friends needed her to become. Who Paris needed her to become. So she’d swallowed down her fear and lept polka-dotted feet first into her new role as a miraculous wielder.

Then, nearly a month after Marinette first slipped those ancient studs through her earlobes and became her alter-ego, a new player appeared.

With a cheeky cock of his head, two claw-tipped hands secured around her wrists, and a purred “I’ll save you from the akuma”, the figure who’d snatched from the path of a speeding projectile and into an adjacent alley was cocky from the start. He was cocky as she pulled from his grasp, cocky as he made a grand show of (shallowly) bowing before her, and even cocky in his offer to help her take down the villain currently tearing its way through downtown Paris.

The annoyance was instantaneous.

Most likely unbeknownst to him, Marinette had known all too well exactly who the boy standing before her was, all black leather and sterling baton and smiles that didn’t reach those toxic green eyes. All confident posture and inviting smile and hand that stayed poised around his weapon even as they engaged in some “friendly banter”. She knew because Tikki had often told her the time would come when she would finally meet with her other half.

The yin to her yang.

The destruction to her creation.

The Chat Noir to her Ladybug.

Marinette had known they were two sides of the same coin and she had felt it the moment he’d first moved alongside her in battle. The draw was immediate. _This_ was her counter-balance. _This_ was her puzzle piece. _This_ was the partner she was fundamentally made to be with incarnation after incarnation.

But unfortunately, _this_ wasn’t one of those lifetimes.

So when the newly cleansed akuma had flittered up and away- when Chat Noir had turned to her with smile too wide and eyes too slitted as they locked onto her ears- Ladybug had ran. She’d ran and she hadn’t stopped until at last she could no longer hear his boots pounding the pavement behind her or his increasingly hostile demands for her to “stop!” and “listen!” and “get back here you litte-“

Ladybug had ran until her chest heaved and her skin perspired and her transformation slipped from her like silk over marble. Ran until she was certain he wouldn’t find her, until Tikki had had to beg her to stop.

She’d ran from him, from her Chat Noir.

From the ying to her yang.

From the destruction to her creation.

… and from her undisputed mortal enemy.

But from that day forth, she never ran again. Because in the weeks and months and years that followed, Ladybug fought. With every sling of her yo-yo, snap of her compact, and swift kick to that annoying belted backside, Ladybug fought tooth and nail to keep the very thing that made her who she was. Who Paris and her friends needed to be.

And thus arose a rivalry so cosmic it nearly tore the city (or perhaps the very world) apart.

The rivalry of Ladybug and Chat Noir- a fight that was never meant to be.


End file.
